Four people, owners of related companies, are under investigation for aggravated fraud in competition to the detriment of the State between 2016 and 2022 in the Ferrara area. According to the accusatory framework reconstructed by the Prosecutor’s Office, the four would have unduly exported cars subjected to administrative detention, initially purchased with the excuse of obtaining spare parts, ending up obtaining an unfair profit of 247,000 euros and causing damage to the treasury of approximately 4 million euros.
Public bodies defrauded
According to the investigators, the current suspects would have hidden the export of the vehicles from the Motorization offices, deceiving the various public bodies holding the credit who, totally unaware of what was happening, however, they remained convinced that they could take action on vehicles under administrative detention to satisfy their tax liabilities. By doing so, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, the illicitly exported cars would still be the property of the four, considering that there would have been no transfer of ownership, and therefore they would still continue to be registered in the PRA-Public Automotive Registry with their Italian license plates, despite Italy no longer exists. In total we are talking about an investigation in which the investigators’ lens focused on the sale of more than 500 vehicles, of which over 350 are still formally owned and burdened by administrative measures. However, traces of some of these vehicles have been lost the Prosecutor’s Office decided to proceed only against the remaining over 150.
Registration abroad
It is on these that the investigators ascertained an illicit export “under the table” and the subsequent registration abroad, mainly between Germany and Romania, requesting their seizure. A request which, however, last March, the investigating judge of the Ferrara court rejected, justifying his decision due to the too “weak” accusatory framework. Prosecutor Andrea Maggioni, who is in charge of the investigation file, therefore decided to challenge the court order and proceed with the review. Yesterday (Thursday 2 May) the panel of the Ferrara court – president Piera Tassoni with judges Marco Peraro and Giovanni Solinas on the sidelines – reserved and will soon decide whether or not to cancel the provision in question.
